Christopher Page (born 1952) is a British expert on

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and followed by the Renaissance ...

, instruments and performance practice, together with the social and musical history of the guitar in England from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. He has written numerous books regarding medieval music. He is currently a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Emeritus Professor of Medieval Music and Literature in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge.

Life and career

Christopher Page, Fellow of the British Academy and Member of the Academia Europaea, was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School (founded 1527) in London and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. He was formerly a junior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford (1977–1980) and senior research fellow in music at Sidney Sussex. He is the founder and director of Gothic Voices, an early music vocal ensemble, which has recorded 25 discs for Hyperion Records, many winning awards. The ensemble has performed in many countries, including, France, Germany, Portugal and Finland. London dates included twice-yearly sell-out concerts at London's Wigmore Hall. The ensemble gave its first Promenade Concert in 1989. The group's work has been chronicled most recently in Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, ''The Modern Invention of Medieval Music'' (CUP, 2007) and Richard Taruskin, ''Text and Act'' (OUP, 2006). His work has consistently been praised for its elegant and approachable prose. Between 1989 and 1997, he was presenter of

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

's Early Music programme, ''Spirit of the Age'', and a presenter of the Radio 4 arts magazine '' Kaleidoscope''. He has been chairman of the National Early Music Association and of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society (founded 1889). He serves on the editorial boards of the journals ''

Early Music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

'' (OUP) and ''Plainsong and Medieval Music'' (CUP). Page was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2008. He is a founder member of the Consortium for Guitar Research at Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, which is an affiliate of the Royal Musical Association. In 2014, he was appointed Professor of Music at Gresham College. In this role he delivered four series of free public lectures within London. He plays historical guitars, principally the four-course renaissance guitar and the early Romantic guitar.

Works

*''Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages'' (1987) *''The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100-1300'' (1989) *''The Summa Musice: A Thirteenth-Century Manual for Singers'' (1991) *''Discarding Images: Reflections on Music and Culture in Medieval France'' (Oxford, 1994) *''Latin Poetry and Conductus Rhythm in Medieval France'' (London, 1996) *''Music and Instruments of the Middle Ages'' (Ashgate, 1999) *''The Christian West and Its Singers: The First Thousand Years'' (2010) *''The Guitar in Tudor England'' (2015) *''The Guitar in Stuart England'' (2017) *''The Guitar in Georgian England'' (2020) Page's major 350,000 word study, ''The Christian West and its Singers: The First Thousand Years'', was published by Yale University Press. In a review for '' The New York Review of Books'', Eamon Duffy wrote: "But once or twice in a generation a book comes along which crosses disciplinary boundaries to make unexpected connections, open up new imaginative vistas, and refocus what had seemed familiar historical landscapes. Page’s musician’s-eye view of the evolution of western Christendom is one of those books". In 2017, ''The Guitar in Tudor England'' won the Nicholas Bessaraboff prize, awarded by the American Musical Instrument Society. A book on the guitar in Georgian England will appear with Yale University Press in 2020.

References

External links

Official homepage of Christopher Page at Sidney Sussex
retrieved 28th Dec 2010 *http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=page {{DEFAULTSORT:Page, Christopher Professors of Gresham College Fellows of Jesus College, Oxford Fellows of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge 1952 births Living people British non-fiction writers British writers about music British performers of early music BBC Radio 3 presenters British male writers Fellows of the British Academy Male non-fiction writers